Tricks and Treats for a Shadow
by Darkblur
Summary: Dusk has managed to convince Shadow to come along to a Halloween party, but there is a devious little plot behind it. But who is going to get the last laugh?


**Mwahahaha! Welcome to my first Halloween themed story! I've had the idea for this bouncing around for a whole year and I've finally gotten to upload it! With barely an hour left on the clock before the ghostly day ends (in my time zone at least).**

**Anyway, this little tale is set in my Dusk Sets storyline, but doesn't take place until after the currently incomplete "Shadows at Dusk." I've written it so that no spoils are given, but its still enjoyable. So now, go ahead and enjoy!**

**Oh yea...I do not own Sonic, Shadow or any of the related characters. They all belong to SEGA/Sonic Team. The only character I do own is Dusk.**

* * *

Shadow sighs to himself just outside of Amy's apartment, then briskly knocks. "I can't believe she managed to..." his sentence trails off when the door opens and gets a look at Dusk in her costume.

Trailing down from her waist to the middle of her thigh is a black skirt, with a few points coming down from there to her knee level. Her torso is wrapped in a small tube-top that's dark-gray in color and reveals a fair of amount of the chest; which isn't really helped by the lighter-gray semi-transparent top she has on. The misty-silver garment is open at the front while snugly tied down by a couple strings, leaves the hedge-girl's shoulders bare, and trails down the arm before ending in a loose-flap just before the wrist. Her Ex-Gear skates are hidden beneath black fabric designed to resemble boots, and last but not least...a witch's hat sits atop her head.

"What's wrong Shadow?" Dusk asks, winking at Shadow and getting his blush to darken. "Never seen a sexy witch before?"

"I...uh...no." Shadow admits, shaking away his embarrassment.

Dusk laughs, "Thanks, your costume is pretty good too."

Shadow's costume isn't quite as complex as Dusk's, but the umber hedgehog has a long cape hanging down from his shoulders that is crimson-red on the front and pitch-black on the back, clasped together in front of his neck by a golden chain. His gloves are still white, but now have a decorative cuff over his wrist limiters and a pair of fake-fangs lurk in his mouth (although his Dracula costume probably didn't need them with his fangs).

"Thank you, now then...shall vee be off?" He asks, holding a hand out to his witch. Dusk giggles at his mock-accent while accepting it, letting Shadow guide her off (after locking the apartment door of course).

Because both hedgehogs still have their skates on, they reach the forest in a matter of minutes; Shadow hanging back and letting Dusk lead him to the party location.

"You know...if you showed me where this place was, I could've just Chaos Controlled us there." Shadow states, somewhat unhappy that he's being lead through a forest.

"But then it wouldn't be as much of a surprise would it?" Dusk replies. "Besides, teleporting in isn't an entrance befitting a witch and a vampire, is it?" She laughs, "Just smile and have a good time, we've earned it."

Shadow indifferently grunts, his way of admitting defeat and saying "Fine, you win."

A couple minutes pass and the two come to a large, dilapidated house that is the definition of a haunted house. The wood is grayed from age and the stone making up the bottom few feet of the walls has chipped away and weathered into little more than gravel. Most of the windows are broken or missing, the bushes in the front yard are overgrown and mangy, even the brick fence is crumbling away to nothing. Completing the spooky atmosphere are giant, trees with gnarled roots and trunks and plenty of large low-hanging empty branches from their younger-years and thick bushy leaves up higher blocking out the stars.

All of this is excluding the Halloween decorations of course. Several Jack-o-lanterns are crowded around the front steps, two more are standing guard on the pillars of the fence where a gate probably stood. Several cloth ghosts are mounted on the walls, and fake grave-stones litter the front-yard watched over by a scare-crow with a pumpkin head. Lights can be seen inside from the windows, and judging by the playing music, a couple of their friends are already present.

"Who found this place?" Shadow asks, following his girlfriend up to the front door.

"Sonic did. According to him, this place is fine apart from the usual creaking and groaning that buildings like this make." Dusk replies, "We all were going to hang out here until about midnight, then go on home, so its only a couple hours."

The purple hedgehog knocks on the front door, which opens with an eerie creak, revealing nobody on the other side. "Hello?" Dusk asks, stepping inside.

"Greetings Dusk. Shadow," says Espio's voice as the chameleon reappears. His eyes are hidden behind a pasty-white mask with one-way eyeholes, a cape of equal white trails down to his ankles from his shoulders, a white top-hat rests on his head, and his gloves have changed into a pair of elegant silk ones. Gently held in his left hand is a cane of black wood, that the ninja sweeps behind him while bowing; tipping his hat with the other hand.

"Hey Espio, you're..." Shadow trails off, trying to get an answer out of the chameleon.

"A phantom of course." He replies, replacing his hat. "You're pretty good too, a vampire and a witch."

"Thanks, anyone else here?" Dusk asks.

"Tails, Cosmo, and Blaze are all in the kitchen, but that's all so far."

Dusk nods to show she understood, then moves off into the living room, leaving Shadow to observe the old house. A rug leads from the front door to and up the stairs, but has been eaten away into little more than threads. A couple dusty hat and coat-racks stand around the room like silent sentinels.

"Hey Espio, any i-" Shadow stops when he notices that Espio has vanished again. "Phantom indeed." the umber vampire mutters before heading into the living room.

This room's hardwood floors have become squeaky from age and the red rug and curtains have faded and frayed into masses of blood-red fabric. A few sets of shelves hide in the corners and a large cabinet is standing guard beside the doorway to the kitchen. To complete this ancient room, on the wall across from the foyer door is a large fireplace and mantle. The only "un-dusty" pieces of furniture are a couple orange couches and a few white tables on which are bowls of snacks; potato chips, corn chips, candy corn, chocolates, and mints.

Dusk is sitting on one of the couches, chatting with Blaze who is apparently a gothic princess. Her lavender fur is dyed black, which matches most of her clothing. Her short sleeved shirt is black with a large frill ending in spikes, and her pants are just as black and go all the way down to her black high-heels. Her gloves have turned black as well, and the feline's arms are covered in dark-gray fish-net sleeves; her wrists and ankles clasped in a couple spiked bands.

"A princess? That's what you chose to dress as?" Shadow asks, lifting an eyebrow.

"You try deciding on something while getting dragged every which way in royal obligations." Blaze retorts. "At least I switched things up and became a dark, gothic princess. Nice Dracula, by the way."

"Thanks." Shadow replies with a nod.

Dusk smiles at her friends before asking, "So when is your boyfriend going to show?"

Blaze shrugs. "The cooler that Tails brought broke, so Silver ran off for Tails' place to get a new one. He oughta be back any minute now."

Just as Shadow was about to ask a question, a giant creature stomps into the living room from the doorway to the kitchen. The behemoth had to be standing seven feet tall and looked like it was composed of discarded plants; the arms and legs are thick from twisted vines, the torso is bluging with mosses and the face is masked by a giant hood of grass and moss.

Dusk and Shadow gasp in surprise before the creature starts giggling. The hood pulls away to reveal Cosmo's shining face. "Hey guys!" She greets, "What do you think of my swamp creature costume?"

"Its awesome!" Dusk cheers, "Isn't it hard to move around though?"

"Not with my powers...it is a little stuffy though." Cosmo replies, opening a hole in the arm to reach through and fan herself. "It really doesn't smell that great either."

"Smells fine to me."

"You haven't been wearing it for an hour."

"Good point...what's your boyfriend up to?" Dusk asks, trying to look around the large costume into the kitchen.

"He's trying to keep the cooler alive until Silver gets back. It doesn't seem to be going well though."

A loud shriek erupts from the foyer, prompting Shadow and Blaze to hurry and over and see what happened while Dusk and Cosmo watch through the doorway.

From what the hedgehog and seedarian can see, Rouge arrived and Espio must've decided to spook her by sneaking up from behind. After wincing from a fleshy smacking noise, Dusk and Cosmo watch as Blaze, Shadow, and Rouge walk in together; Blaze supporting the bat as they walked.

As could be expected, Rouge's costume is less than modest, but her choice is rather surprising. She picked a ninja to dress as; judging by the black V-neck leotard with a gray seam, the flaps of fabric held at waist level by a white band, the white socks in black sandals, black fingerless gloves, and a gray headband with a long tail.

"You okay Rouge?" Cosmo asks.

"I guess so...heart's beating thirty times faster than it should, but I'll be okay." Rouge replies, sighing as she flops down onto the couch beside Dusk. "Its a wonder I didn't hit him harder for scaring the crap out of me like that."

"What'd he do? Sneak from behind?" Dusk asks.

"That, plus lean in close to my ear before saying 'Good Evening!' One inch closer and I would've freaked out of feeling his breath in my ear." Rouge shivers, "Its a good thing its Halloween and..."

"Hey! Looks like we've already guests!" Cheers Sonic's voice, drawing the attention of everyone to the doorway to the foyer. Standing there, side-by-side are Sonic and Amy.

Amy looked pretty beautiful in her costume, ironic seeing as how she's dressed as Medusa. The pink hedgehog has on a long white dress that resembles a tube-top from the waist up, but elegantly flows from the waist down to her ankles. Covering any cleavage that would've been revealed is one of Blaze's gold necklaces and the gold wristbands are still present as is a gold band that's acting like a belt as it sits around her hips. A gold loop rests on top of her head and to complete this whole outfit, the outer halves of her quills are dyed reptile-green and capped with a fake serpent head.

Sonic is the real draw however. He's garbed in blue overalls and a red T-shirt, has a fake moustache planted under his nose, and a big, red cap detailed with a red 'M' in a white circle at the front is sitting between his ears. It isn't the clothing...well, okay, it _is_ the clothing but also that nobody can figure out _who_ or _what_ he's supposed to be. He kinda looked like a plumber, but that option just didn't make any sense.

"Sis!" Dusk exclaims, hurrying over from the couch for a hug; which is happily returned. "Nice Medusa." she flatters.

Amy giggles, ignoring her boyfriend as he makes a beeline for the snack table. "Thanks, you're not a half-bad witch."

"Oh wow...look at how fast the crowd grew..." Tails states, freezing in his tracks from the kitchen at the sight of the group. The fox kit is wearing a white lab coat that has variously colored stains on it, a wig of gray, balding, frazzled hair on his head, cracked glasses resting on his muzzle, and both hands in his pockets.

"So...what are you?" Rouge asks as Tails walks up beside the couch.

"A mad scientist of course...it wasn't an easy costume to make though, there isn't any solid idea of a mad scientist."

"Then why pick it?"

"Well, it finally gave me another reason to use...this!" Tails suddenly shouts, whipping his left hand out of his pocket and scaring his friends with what sat at the end. Instead of his hand, there sits a stumpy black machine with four double-jointed fingers coming out of it.

After recoiling at the initial shock, a couple of the guests start giggling to themselves while the more curious ones, namely Rouge, Sonic, and Espio, lean in for a closer look.

"What happened to your hand Tails?" Sonic asks.

"Nothing, this is just some little robot that I've had lying around my workshop for awhile. My real hand is fine, see?" Tails says, pushing his hand out of the sleeve. The small robot sits comfortably on a metal clamp that Tails' hand is holding onto. "Never heard you guys yells like that before."

"Never expected to see a robotic hand instead of a real one before." Espio counters before going to answer the door.

Tails chuckles a little before the robot suddenly jumps off its holster and at Rouge. The bat screams from surprise and puts her hands up as a shield, but it is too little too late; the robot already landed on a rather...personal area of the bat's chest.

"Oh...umm...sorry Rouge..." Tails says, blushing furiously at his robot's antics. Sonic's got his mouth covered to avoid laughing, but is struggling to keep it back.

Rouge waves her hand before grabbing the robot and handing it back to the fox. "But why did it jump onto my chest?"

"Its always been a little glitchy; I designed it to retrieve screws and other small objects that get dropped behind desks or furniture, but its movement systems malfunctioned so often that I finally gave up on it." Tails explains, tucking the robot into his pocket where it couldn't do any more harm (hopefully). "I could've sworn it was off though, so there is no reason why it jumped onto your-" the sentence abruptly ends while Tails starts blushing again, "S-sorry again by the way!" he stutters before hurrying away into the kitchen.

Rouge only chuckles, "He looked like I was about to tear his head off, I can't help it if all kinds of things, living and mechanical, are attracted to me."

"You might want to tone it down a little Rouge, I hear him coming back." Sonic says before going off to join in the conversation between Blaze and Amy.

Rouge glances towards the door to the foyer to see Espio leading Charmy, Cream, Cheese, and Chocola into the living room. Cream is wearing a light-blue dress that goes from shoulders to feet, elbow-length white gloves, and has a pair of plastic fairy wings strapped to her back. Both of her chao are wearing miniature versions of Cream's dress, but that's it; they already have wings and their arms are too short for gloves.

Charmy is a little more frightening however. Instead of his flight helmet and jacket, the bee is wearing a black vest, dark-blue puffy shorts, has a bandanna tied around his head, an eye-patch, a fake peg-leg case around his left leg, a toy sword held against him by a strip of red fabric at the waist, and finally a plastic hook on one hand. He is nowhere near the most frightening pirate ever seen, but _is_so scary is that Vector and Espio are letting the hyper bee play with a hook and a sword...plastic or not they are sharp.

"We- I mean...argh!" Charmy growls, "Avast! I spy a candy bowl up ahead!"

Before he can even move, Espio's hand jets out and grabs him by the stinger. "Two. Pieces." Espio states, not growling, but still getting his point across. "I'll be watching."

"Aw Espio, you take the fun out of everything!" Charmy whines, but still heads right over to the candy.

Cream, meanwhile, has wandered over to Dusk and Cosmo, who are over by a window and occasionally glancing outside while talking. "Hi Ms. Dusk! Ms. Cosmo!" She politely cheers, echoed by a "Chao-chao!" from Cheese and Chocola.

"Hey Cream," Dusk replies, "You are one cute little fairy, you know that?" She asks, ruffling down Cream's head and earning a squeak from the smaller mobian.

"I'm glad the both of you could come." The rabbit replies, squirming away from Dusk's hand before catching her around the waist in hug.

"Wouldn't miss it," Cosmo answers, "Especially not with what we've got planned for later, right?" she slyly asks, giving Dusk a quick wink.

The purple hedgehog quickly winks back before glancing in at the room, smiling at all of her friends talking and laughing together. Even Shadow seems to be enjoying himself, chatting with Rouge over on the couch.

Then she hears a loud stomp out in the foyer, and upon turning she also hears a hissing, snort-like sound come from that room as all too familiar shadow washes up on the wall she could see through the doorway.

Her eyes narrow to the size of darts before she quickly yells and leaps through the doorway, surprising everyone else. They watch the purple hedge-girl fly through the door, use her skates to bounce off the wall beside the stairway and lunge toward the front door; then hear a loud, male yell a second later, accompanied by an equally loud thud.

They all rush out to find Vector sprawled out on his back, groaning, and Dusk a few feet from him at the base of the stairs; her pose suggesting she just landed from the tackle's recoil.

"Vector!" Sonic yells, while he, Shadow, and Amy rush over.

The croc groans while lifting himself into a sitting position, grunting as he puts a hand to his head. "Ahh...what hit me?"

"I'd say maybe sixty-pounds of lithe female hedgehog." Shadow answers, "Dusk!"

"Sorry!" She exclaims, hurrying over with her ears back. "I saw the shadow, heard a snarl, and...sort of thought Vector...was an...Egg-Raptor." She explains, her voice getting quieter with each piece.

Well, it really wasn't that hard to believe Dusk confused Vector with those raptor machines of the past. Gone are his headphones and necklace, and the cuffs of his gloves have a muddy brown covering on them. Attached to all of his stumpy back-spines are large cardboard ones, each left brown. His shoes have a set of three cardboard claws as well as the same mud-brown cover his gloves, there are large spikes jutting out from his tail, several cracks are painted onto his now brown-dyed scales, his eyes are tinted red, and a fake scar is drawn around his left eye. It wasn't all that bad of a raptor costume, and considering Vector's size and posture; Dusk did have a valid argument.

"Urgh...you guys sure it was Dusk that hit me? Felt more like a truck..." the croc groans, rubbing his head a little more.

"I'll assume you're talking about force and not weight." Dusk says, holding out a hand. "Sorry again, lots of bad memories about those raptors..."

Vector quickly twists his head a little before grabbing her hand and accepting the help up. "Eh, I'm alright. You stunned me more than anything and I should probably thank you. Ya helped get a nasty crick outta my neck."

"Oh...umm...you're welcome?" Dusk asks, not sure how to respond to someone thanking her for flooring him.

Vector only chuckles, "No hard feelings, okay? Just get me a little ice and I'll be a happy croc."

Dusk and the other manage a couple chuckles at Vector's easygoing self, and the purple hedgehog hurries off in search of the ice while the other three help the raptor-gator into the living room.

The witch returns in couple seconds, one hand holding several ice cubes and the other holding a soda can. "Here Vector, a little ice plus a soda."

"Ahh, thanks." Vector replies, accepting the gifts and quickly placing the ice to his head; sighing from the comfort. "You know Shadow, I think you picked a great girl."

Before Shadow could make a remark, Dusk quickly takes his hand in hers while pecking him on the cheek. All the umber hedgehog answered with is "Yea..."

The rest of the mobians share a laugh at Shadow's lack of words before another scream, this time from Charmy, rings out. They all turn to see the Grim Reaper standing in the doorway; his face masked by his hood and one bony hand out of a sleeve clutching onto a scythe about a foot taller than him.

Just as the others are about to let out their yells, the reaper suddenly starts chuckling. Not an evil, 'I'm-here-to-take-your-soul" laugh, but one of amusement. His other hand extends from the sleeve and pulls back the hood; revealing none other than Knuckles.

"You guys should've seen your faces." he says between his chuckles. "Amy's eyes were as big as dinner plates."

The pink medusa quickly scowls before forming and throwing a hammer, which is barely dodged by the echidna reaper.

"Hey!" Knuckles yells, glaring back at the medusa.

"I can't say you didn't have that coming Knuckles," says Shade as she walks around the corner.

Her Nocturnus gloves, boots, belt, and headband are all still present, but her tank-top and shorts have changed their color from scarlet red and tan to steel gray. Closing tightly around her arms are two steel gray sleeves, both of which contour to every curve in a sleek way. The normally tan tips of her hair are dyed steel gray as well and sitting over one side of her face is a large metal mask that stretches from the back of the headband to the middle of the nose and features a large red lens over her right eye. All-in-all, she's a pretty good cyborg.

"I'm siding with Shade on this one Knuckles," adds Silver's voice as he also comes into view, but unlike Shade who stopped beside her echidna boyfriend, he keeps going and is levitating the new cooler behind him. "I'm kinda surprised you havn't learned what not to do to Amy yet."

Silver's mane is now matted and tangled up instead of its usual well-kept appearance. Sitting on his arms are two large furry sleeves that match his own fur in color and appear to be just as tangled up as his mane. His quills look a little more...frazzled now, like he just zapped himself with a static bolt. The golden cuffs on his gloves and boots are now jet-black, a pair of fangs are now poking out of his mouth, the bottom of his boots are now spiked, and his whole person looks a little larger and buffer.

"Not a bad costume Silver, but you're the least person I'd pick to dress as a were-hog." Rouge comments as the psychokinetic walks by.

"Thanks," Silver replies before crossing into the kitchen and disappearing from view.

"Well, now that everyone is here, shouldn't we get to the games?" Amy eagerly asks, rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

"Settle down Amy." Blaze states, "We just got the replacement cooler here, give Tails a chance to set it up before we go diving into the games."

"While we're waiting for that, why don't we share ghost stories?" Espio suggests. "It might be able to pass the time."

"Sure! I've actually got one for this very house." Sonic replies, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Now, I heard this from a couple hikers that I crossed paths with a few years ago and they are actually the ones that told me about this place. They told me that this place used to be some kind of second home for a wealthy businessman who used to come to this place after a long week of work to unwind.

"This particular man also happened to be a collector of all kinds of historic artifacts, and one day he came across a particularly valuable piece; an ancient tribal mask from an unknown civilization. According to the salesman, the previous owner gave it away for free; claiming that the mask was cursed. Not one to believe in curses, the businessman bought the mask and brought it back to this house where it hung proudly on the wall. For a couple weeks, nothing happened.

"Then, all of a sudden...strange things started to happen. At first, they were little; the pantry door opening during the course of the night or a window shutting on its own without a breeze. The businessman simply shrugged them off as wear and tear on the doors or windows. A week later, things got worse...one night he got jolted awake by a sinister laugh in his room, and another day one of his artifacts went flying off the wall and slammed into the wall across the room.

"Still he stubbornly believed it to be nothing. But the mysterious events began to get worse. Slowly his staff started to disappear. First the butler, then the gardener...one by one they all vanished. He still didn't buy into the curse until about three months after he bought the mask, when he was awoken by a noise in his room and saw a huge, thing looming over him. Thinking he should destroy the thing instead of passing it off to someone else, he quickly built a bonfire and burned the mask to ashes. It seemed to work, nothing else happened for a whole month..." Sonic trails off.

"T-Then what?" Cream nervously asks, hiding behind Amy.

"He mysteriously died in his sleep, strange for a fit man of forty. When that happened, his remaining staff left and the rest of the family left the house to rot. Even though there isn't any logical reason why he would suddenly die, some of the folks believed that whatever spirit was brought into the house through the mask never fully left when he burnt it. It was just waiting, biding its time until it could act again. But the really eerie thing, is that he died on Halloween night..." Sonic answers, getting a shiver to run down the spines of half his crowd.

"Some still say that whatever ghost got him is still lurking in this house. Nearby campers have seen shadows flitting about on the grounds or strange noises coming out the windows. They say the spirit still haunts this place; waiting for another victim..."

Some of his audience gulp. For a hedgehog in overalls and a moustache, he's really good at this.

"But its all just a story...or is it?"

All of a sudden, a loud thud comes from the kitchen, getting the whole crowd to jump. "Sorry!" Yells Tails' voice. "I dropped the bad cooler!"

While the rest of the crowd starts calming their nerves, nobody happens to notice the Rose sisters wink at one another.

After that story nobody else really wanted to hear anymore, but luckily Tails and Silver are finished with the coolers by then. For the next hour the friends laugh at more tame stories, bob for apples, and share a couple sodas while wolfing down the snacks.

Finally, around eleven, the party starts running out of steam. Most of the friends seem to be getting drowsy (except Charmy, who never seems to run out of energy but wasn't bouncing off the walls either) and their previously loud chatter has reduced to the low grumble of conversation.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to get tired." Knuckles comments.

"Same here," Vector yawns, getting his teeth to glint in the light.

"Would it really be that bad if we cut the party short by an hour?" Shadow asks. "I myself wouldn't mind."

"Yea, that's probably a good idea." Sonic says.

Without waiting for a second opinion, Shadow heads for the door. That was the last thing he did, all of sudden, things went black.

* * *

Shadow groans while getting back to his feet, wincing at the throbbing pain in his head. "Geez...what the hell..." his sentence trails off, partially from the pain and partially from his surroundings.

He is standing in the middle of the living room instead of the doorway. One of the couches was overturned, the other is haphazardly rammed into the corner, and the snack table is tipped over; its bowls sitting on the floor (no snacks are present though, they all got eaten during the course of the party). Even stranger is that it is extremely dark and dead silent...none of his friends are around.

"Hello?" Shadow asks, glancing around the room.

No answer.

The umber hedgehog takes a couple steps before some footsteps are heard in the kitchen. Quick as a flash, Shadow darts into the kitchen and looks every which way for someone.

Nobody.

"Hello." Shadow states, "Guys...seriously, knock it off."

One of the coolers opens up, all by itself.

"Esp-" Before Shadow could finish his sentence, several dozen ice cubes come flying out of the cooler, all coming within inches of Shadow's person.

The ice's assault suddenly stops and Shadow hears more footsteps back in the living room. The umber hedgehog hurries back over there, but again finds nothing.

"This isn't funny guys. I'm not laughing!" He angrily yells.

A soft thud is heard before a light appears. Shadow turns towards it to find a cobalt-blue fire burning in the fireplace. At first he thought it was Blaze, but then he remembers that she makes _orange_ flames, not _blue_ ones.

Before he could even say anything, the fire quickly leaps out of the fireplace and flies out through the foyer door. Shadow quickly gives chase and follows the little blue wisp up the staircase to the upper hallway. There really isn't much room to move around up here, the floor falls away about ten feet from the top of the stairs, but there is still enough room for two doorways, one on both sides of the hallway.

The blue wisp teasingly floats for a second before darting into the left doorway. Shadow rounds the corner and finds a dusty bedroom; bed on one side, a large wardrobe across from it, a lopsided night-stand beside the bed, a window across from him, and a rug on the floor, but no wisp.

"What the...where did it-"

Shadow is cut off when loud, shriek-like laughter rings out, startling him so badly he gasps and gets into an attack pose. The wardrobe grumbles before suddenly bursting open, letting a large shadow leap out and then lunge at the umber hedgehog. Even though it vanishes before touching him, Shadow is still startled enough to stumble backwards, out of the bedroom and into the one behind him.

The ultimate life form barely has time to turn around before a large skeleton hurls itself at him. Again he stumbles out of the room, tangled up in the demented creature, and quickly bangs his head against the now closed door to the first bedroom.

The door he just came out of slams shut before a piercing shriek comes echoing down the hallway, startling the newly freed hedgehog. Just like before, Shadow is spooked backwards, this time tumbling down the stairs and landing in the middle of the foyer.

He groans again while holding his head and standing up. "You guys are evil, you know that?!" He angrily shouts. "I'm not laughing right now! Knock it off before I make you!"

Behind him comes a rattling noise and opening turning he sees another door. The door suddenly opens while a truly frightening thing floats out; Sonic. Instead of the normal, cheery hedgehog, Sonic is now glaring down at Shadow as he levitates in the air. All of his color is gone too, Sonic is now a pure white hedgehog and is somehow emitting a light-blue glow.

"Shadow!" Sonic bellows. "It is your fault we are this way!"

"What did I do?"

"I told the story of this place, it was a warning to all of us. You didn't think and decide to follow the warning! You didn't encourage us to leave! It is your fault we fell to the curse of this place!"

"You said yourself that it was nothing more than a story!" Shadow argues.

"Silence!" Sonic bellows, "That excuse won't change what happened! All of us are now dead...even Dusk!"

"D-Dusk?"

"Yes, all of us are doomed to walk the earth as lost souls, and you have to live with the guilt of causing it!" Sonic proclaims.

Shadow's eyes slowly start widening as he tries to process all of this information. None of it made any sense at all...at least not until Sonic starts...laughing?

Shadow looks back up to see Sonic doubled over laughter, "Ah dude! I don't think I've ever seen your eyes that big before!" he exclaims, laughing for a few more seconds before suddenly falling on his butt.

"Sonic!" growls Silver's voice as he comes out from behind the staircase, "I told you that if you squirm around too much I can't keep you aloft."

"I couldn't help it! I've never seen Shadow look so spooked before!" Sonic laughs.

Silver sighs, before yelling out, "Alright guys, joke's over. Sonic blew it."

Slowly, to Shadow's amazement, the rest of his friends start pooling into the foyer; amused over their prank but frustrated that Sonic ruined it.

"Didn't I tell you guys to knock off the jokes?" Shadow growls.

"Sorry Shadow, but we just couldn't help it." Amy replies, "This whole plan was too good to not follow."

"So all these tricks were you guys?" Shadow asks.

"I did the ice and took care of levitating Sonic." Silver states.

"I made the footsteps and was the shadow that attacked you." Espio adds.

"I did the shriek and the laughter!" Rouge chimes.

"I took care of the wisp." Blaze states, "If I concentrate hard enough, I can get the flames hot enough to turn blue." To demonstrate, Blaze focuses intently on her fingertip where a blue ember appears after a second.

"Okay, so who was the skeleton?" Shadow asks.

"That would be Dusk," Amy answers, "Speaking of her...where is my sis?"

"OoooOOOooo..." moans a voice from up at the top of the stairs. The whole crowd looks up to see a really bad ghost up there...it was just a sheet tossed over some object.

"That is it..." Shadow snarls, stomping up the stairs towards the "ghost." "Dusk! Get out from under th-" he stops upon pulling the sheet away, finding not Dusk underneath it, but...a strange black blob with two blood-red eyes.

The thing looks at Shadow for a second before starting to get bigger and changing shape. Suddenly a large, sharp-toothed mouth tears itself open as the ghoul shrieks loudly.

Among the yells and screams of terror, the whole crowd down below almost breaks the front doors off their hinges as they rush outside; running away from the house in pure terror at speeds that Sonic regularly hits.

Shadow is not among them, rooted to his spot of terror. The ghoul looks as though it is going to shriek again, but instead it starts giggling. The "creature" starts dissolving away before becoming nothing, but it does leave behind the red Chaos and Sol Emeralds.

The giggling continues while Shadow's deep chuckles get added to the mix. Out of the shadows of the hall walks Dusk, doing her best to not double over with laughter. "Oh that was good. I don't think I've ever scared so many people at once before!" she exclaims.

"That was a very good ghoul you created out of your shadow Dusk." Shadow compliments. "I'm sure the others will agree when we tell them about our prank. I didn't think you could make such a large shadow though..."

"That's where this little trinket comes in handy." Dusk replies, gently prying the yellow Sol Emerald from beneath her tube top. "And before you ask, I only put it there because my ghoul needs _both_ hands to work properly."

"And Blaze actually let you borrow two of her emeralds?" Shadow asks, watching as Dusk bends over to claim the other two jewels.

"Well, she thinks I was borrowing them to scare you, so yea. She did." Dusk replies, standing back up and tossing the red emerald to Shadow. "Speaking of that, how'd you like my haunted house of terror?"

"You thought it up?!" Shadow asks in surprise. "I thought we were teaming up to prank everyone else!"

"And we did, but I also teamed up with everyone else to scare the crap out of you!" Dusk exclaims. "Did it work?"

"Lets just say I'm never going to trust your Halloween parties again." Shadow grumbles, giving his girlfriend a half-glare. "Its hard to believe that such a sweet girl can also be so deviously evil."

"Yup, and I'm all yours!" Dusk replies, quickly falling against Shadow. Being used to this, Shadow doesn't even flinch when her head connects with his shoulder, he only stands there and lets Dusk lean against him. "I am a little concerned...to knock you out to actually get everything ready, we let Amy hit you with one of her hammers. Are you alright? Did she hit you too hard?"

"My head does hurt a little. Maybe I can just lean on you for a little bit." Shadow replies, resting his own head against Dusk's.

Dusk smirks and gives Shadow a playful shove. "Since its so late, you can probably sleep over in our apartment." Dusk offers. "After the scare I gave the rest of our friends, I'm sure Amy and Sonic are sleeping together tonight."

"Sure, thanks." Shadow replies.

"Don't think you'll get anywhere tonight Shadow." Dusk warns.

"I was planning to sleep on the couch in the first place." He replies.

"Oh...well...okay then..." Dusk answers, blushing a little and turning around to hide it. Then she hears a faint groan. "Forget it Shadow, you're not scaring me."

"What are you talking about?"

"You just groaned."

"No I didn't."

Dusk hears the groan again.

"There! You just did it again!" She says, spinning around to face him.

"Its not me!" Shadow insists. Again the groan comes, but Shadow's mouth never moved.

"Wait...if we're the only two here, and you're not doing it...and...I'm not doing it...then..." Dusk's eyes widen. "Th-that means..."

They hear the groan again, this time its louder and sounds like its coming out of the hallway. The two hedgehogs turn to see a faint light way down in the shadows of the hall. The light dances around in place for a couple seconds before another groan emanates from it.

That's the last thing either hedgehog hears. Quicker than Sonic can run, both Shadow and Dusk tear down the stairway and shoot out the open doorway, blazing away into the night faster than either has ever gone before.

* * *

The friends cautiously return the next morning to recover all of the decorations and furnishings they brought in for the party; finding everything neatly placed out in the front yard. After hearing Dusk and Shadow's story they got everything and left in one trip...

...none of them ever returned to the manor...

* * *

...trick? Or treat?

**

* * *

**

Alright, now then I need to say this. Because Sonic was dressed as Mario, I do not own him either. Mario is copyrighted to Nintendo. Now I need to ask, how was it? I wrote half of it this afternoon, so I hope it didn't suffer from the last minute writing craze.

**As much fun as it was to wake Dusk back up, I'm still going to try and complete "Super Smash Bros Clash" before I press a single key for one of my other stories. I hope you understand and remain patient while I work through these stories one at a time. Hope it doesn't take too long to get back to work on this universe, but until then! Hope you had a fun, safe, happy Halloween and I'll see ya later!**


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